I found myself saying something unthinkable to my 81 year old Republican father yesterday. I told him I didn't think it would be a catastrophe if John McCain were elected. To be honest, I said this in the spirit of family harmony. My father and I have a long history of arguing about politics, and since he is now disabled, I don't want to get him all riled up.
But even as I was saying it, I realized I didn't really mean it. A John McCain presidency would be a disaster. Sure, it wouldn't be as bad as a Rudy Giuliani presidency, which might get us embroiled in World War III while destroying the domestic economy, or a Mitt Romney presidency, which would complete the corporate takeover of this country, or a (heaven forbid!) Mike Huckabee presidency which would take "faith-based" to a new and frightening level.
John McCain might stop torture as official U.S. policy and address the issue of climate change in some fashion. Nonetheless, in so many other areas, a McCain presidency would do terrible things to us as a country including:
*Keeping our troops and treasure bound up in Iraq indefinitely.
*Continuing the health care crisis by instituting only "market-based" and "tax- based" reforms, which would do nothing to help those who can least afford health care.
*Continuing the current tax cuts, which put a much higher tax burden on the middle and working classes, continue to grow the deficit, widen the divide between rich and poor, and mortgage our children's future.
*Appointing radical right wing judges to the Supreme Court who would abandon the longstanding respect for issues of privacy, favor corporate rights over individual rights, and continue the effort to give the president increasingly more power than the Congress.
A John McCain presidency, simply by continuing Republican ownership of the White House, would be good news for corporations and bad news for individuals, good for the wealthy and bad for the poor, good for oil companies and bad for the planet, good for CEO's and bad for hourly wage workers, and as much as he may want to fight the "war on terror," a John McCain presidency would be good for al Qaeda and war profiteers and bad for the United States and those of us who want peace.
Conservative economic policies, which McCain would continue, have been a disaster for all but the wealthiest of Americans. While promising much, they have delivered little for the man on the street. Continuing them for four more years would be worse than foolish on the part of the American voters. And the Bush foreign policy, which McCain would also continue, would not make America safer and would ultimately deplete our treasury.
The "empathy deficit" that Barack Obama talks about would continue. America would continue to be hated around the world, and instead of repairing the damage that Reagan-Bush conservatism has done to the country and the world, we would have to wait four more years to begin the healing, all the while holding our breath and hoping we will be able to survive four more years.
